It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, c. 1515Quotes
My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.
—Frederick the Great, c. 1770Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
—Mao Zedong, 1938The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
—H.L. Mencken, 1921A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1944Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.
—Charles de Gaulle, 1963People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.
—Robert Byrd, 2005I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.
—Catherine the Great, c. 1796The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1908An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.
—James Russell Lowell, c. 1865Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.
—John Wilkes Booth, 1865All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.
—Al Smith, 1933Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
—Lord Acton, 1887